SINGAPORE – School bus operators can impose a temporary fuel surcharge of up to 20 per cent on fares for July and August amid high fuel prices.
Bus operators serving at least three schools – St Andrew’s School Junior, St Stephen’s School and Meridian Primary School – will implement surcharges ranging from 10 to 20 per cent, The Straits Times has learnt.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) said on June 25 that school bus operators are discussing fare adjustments with schools and communicating changes to parents during the school holidays.
This enables parents to plan transport arrangements for their children when the school term starts, it added.
The ministry did not provide details on how many school bus operators will be raising their monthly fares.
Checks by ST showed that RS Transport Services will apply a fuel surcharge of 11 per cent on the current monthly school bus fares for St Andrew’s School Junior – below the maximum fuel surcharge cap set by MOE.
According to the school’s website, fares currently range from $200 to $280 for two-way journeys – depending on the distance travelled and vehicle size.
The fares will increase to between $222 and $310.80 when the surcharge kicks in.
RS Transport Services also provides school bus services for Kong Hwa School, St Joseph’s Institution Junior and St Margaret’s School (Primary). It is not known if pupils at those schools will also be affected by the surcharge.
Liberty Transport Services will impose a 20 per cent fuel surcharge on the monthly bus fares for pupils of St Stephen’s School.
The current bus fares are not publicly available, though it was reported in February 2023 that the operator had raised its monthly fares to $225 for pupils making one-way trips shorter than 2km via medium-sized buses, after taking over from the previous operator.
From a circular published on the Parents Gateway app, St Stephen’s School said that MOE will conduct the next review of the fuel surcharge cap in August for the months of September and October.
“The school will keep parents or guardians informed of any further adjustments accordingly,” it said.
For Shanz Transportation Services, which serves Meridian Primary School, director Shah Nordin said the firm will raise bus fares by only 10 per cent in August. Fares will remain the same for July.
“We want to give parents enough time to prepare and raise funds for the fees in August… It may be taxing for them to make payment now for July (if we increase fares),” he said.
Shah added that the 10 per cent hike in fares is likely to be sufficient to cover rising fuel costs, which have more than doubled since the start of the conflict in the Middle East.
Some operators said they will not be adjusting school bus fares.
Goh Siew Chai, director of Sky Transport Services which operates buses for Huamin Primary School, Northland Primary School, Xinghua Primary School and Telok Kurau Primary School, said he can still get by for now.
Noting that fuel prices have stabilised temporarily following peace talks between the United States and Iran, Goh said he hopes to keep fares unchanged until at least the end of 2026 “since there are just a few months left”.
“Many of these families probably have similar income levels as me… It is not good to raise fares by too much,” he added.
Goh will consider increasing the fares next year, in line with the fuel surcharge cap MOE sets for January 2027.
Sky Transport Services’ school bus fares range from $160 to $220 for two-way journeys across four schools.
Keomin Bus Service, operator for Yio Chu Kang Primary School, said it will not raise fares because parents told them that any increase in transport costs would translate to additional financial pressure on their families.
Its fares will remain at between $140 and $270 for two-way trips.
Among the parents unaffected by the fare hike is Amber Chong, 35, whose son attends St Stephen’s School. He uses a private bus operator approved by the school, rather than Liberty Transport Services.
While Chong is worried that her son’s fares will ultimately increase, she said that her family needs the school bus services as there is no one to pick him up from school every day.
She added that she is willing to pay up to 20 per cent more in school bus fares if the private operator decides to raise its fares.
Homemaker Vivian Chong, 45, is relieved that the school bus fare for her son – a pupil at Boon Lay Garden Primary School – will not increase.
It currently costs her family $200 each month for one-way school bus services, half of which is subsidised by the school.
MOE said that pupils on the ministry’s Financial Assistance Scheme will not see an increase in the fares they pay out of pocket, as they will receive additional school bus subsidies to cover the fare hikes.
It added that it will continue to track the shifting fuel price situation closely, and review the cap on the fuel surcharge where appropriate.
Fuel prices across the world have spiked since the outbreak of the Iran war on Feb 28, with restrictions imposed on the Strait of Hormuz crippling the flow of oil and gas.
MOE had provided additional funding to operators in May and June, covering 20 per cent of their transport fare revenue.
Voo Wei Keong, honorary secretary of the Singapore School and Private Hire Bus Owners’ Association, said that the implementation of this fuel surcharge remains entirely at the discretion of individual operators.
He noted, however, that the current diesel prices continue to be above what operators had budgeted for in their fixed-price contracts, and so they may continue to face considerable financial strain.